British Policeman in Homophobic Attack

[Brad the Impala]

I guess that most people might guess that the policeman would be the attacker, but he was the unfortunate victim who is critically ill in hospital.


A gang of up to 20 youths attacked an off-duty trainee police officer outside a gay bar in Liverpool city centre.

James Parkes, 22, who is training with the Merseyside force, was out with friends when he was set upon by the gang on Stanley Street on Sunday night.

Four boys from the Kirkdale area, one aged 17, two aged 15 and one 14, have been arrested on suspicion of assault.

Mr Parkes is in hospital with multiple skull fractures and fractures of his eye-socket and cheek bone.

BBC REPORT (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8326810.stm)

The unfortunate victim was actually a trainee rather than a fully-fledged Police Officer.

Had he been fully qualified the attack may not have happenned. Instead of him being attacked on emerging from a gay nightclub he might instead have been sitting in a police vehicle making notes as to how long certain individuals spent in the local public conveniences - or peering through steamy car windows in some lay-by trying to catch 2 guys having a wank.

:protest: :protest: :protest:

[Brad the Impala]

Fortunately such actions as you describe(and perhaps have experienced) are less common than they used to be. Remember the pretty police?! It is an indicator of the progress that we now have openly gay policemen, but sad that people are still attacked, in a "civilized" society purely because of their sexuality.

Also notable that the 12 arrested so far are all minors, aged 13-17.

Also notable that the 12 arrested so far are all minors, aged 13-17.

I didn't know there were any miners left in the UK. Was Arthur Scargill arrested?


:laughing3: :laughing3:

[Brad the Impala]

"We will be paying our respects to victims of homophobia but also demonstrating that we will not be intimidated and will not tolerate this mindless behaviour."



Liverpool Echo Article (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-life/liverpool-lifestyle/2009/10/30/out-and-about-james-parkes-attack-100252-25048707/)

I guess that most people might guess that the policeman would be the attacker, but he was the unfortunate victim who is critically ill in hospital.His job was clearly irrelevant to the attack. I wonder if he had been an off-duty bus driver whether his occupation would even have been mentioned.

[Brad the Impala]

Probably not. The newsworthiness of the story was the unusual juxtaposition of gay and policeman(albeit ignoring the fact that he was a trainee), rather than the fact of another hompohobic attack.

I wonder if he had been an off-duty bus driver whether his occupation would even have been mentioned.


"I wonder if he had been an off-duty bus driver whether" it would have made the news at all. As Brad says, "probably not", even though the age and number of the attackers is the most disturbing aspect of the assault.


Maybe Thailand is not such a bad place after all, when the most discrimination reported here is the occasional nasty look in the Center Condo lift from fellow farangs. So much for Western progress .....

[Brad the Impala]

Indeed it is fairly inconceivable for someone to be attacked in Thailand just for the state of being gay.

It highlights that intolerance cannot be changed by legislation alone, and that considerable education and work is still necessary to rebuff homophobia where it arises.

Brad, you set me wondering whether the incidence of "gay bashing" might be on the rise in the UK, if this incident was so "routine" that it would probably not have been reported had the victim not been a policeman.

According to a BBC report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8337446.stm) published today apparently it is, and quite noticeably and worringly so: "There are no national figures for homophobic crime, but individual police forces have reported an annual rise in their latest figures - 40% in Merseyside, which covers Liverpool, and 34% in Strathclyde, which includes Glasgow. .... In London, where there was a series of attacks over the summer on people outside gay bars in the East End, there has been an 18% rise, mostly in common assault and harassment, prompting Mayor Boris Johnson to seek assurances that enough is being done."

Although "the police say this rise, at least partly, is due to improved relations with the gay community. After decades of mistrust and a resistance to reporting homophobic crime, gays and lesbians are coming forward in greater numbers, say police. Some forces have introduced third-party and online reporting in an effort to address the under-reporting of these incidents" I agree to a limited extent (although I hate to admit it) with Peter Tatchell who reportedly "sees a more worrying picture. The higher level of reporting to police has masked an accompanying rise in attacks, he believes. This is partly due to more people coming out as society becomes more accepting, plus there's probably a backlash happening against equality legislation, he suggests. "As more people come out they become more visible and more easily identifiable. That makes them easier targets for people who want to target them. The second thing is there's probably an element of people who are losing what they have until now taken for granted - their right to be homophobic. They are angry and it's a last desperate gasp from people who are used to doing what they like to gay people. I remember there was a similar backlash in the US in the 60s, a big rise in racist attacks in the wake of the civil rights movement.""

I cannot accept that there is ever any excuse for "hate crimes" based on race, creed, skin colour, religion, sexual preference, etc, of any description. At the same time I cannot help feeling that just as a small minority of muslims has alienated a lot of the western world, not so much by the terrorist attacks which are obviously the work of extremist fanatics but far more by the more widespread and growing insistence on, for example, all muslims wearing the hijab (women) or taqiyah (men) even though a lot of muslims do not want to be needlessly identified as "different", so some of the "gay community" have alienated those around them unnecessarily by insisting not only on being identified as different, but actually being treated as different.

It may not only be coincidence that the highest rise in reported "homophobic crime" of any area in the UK (40%) was in Liverpool where the City council have announced an official "gay quarter". Although I accept that many cities have official or historic minority areas such as Chinatown, that have evolved over time, I wonder how those who have supported the "gay quarter" would feel about a proposal for an official "straight quarter" (or, similarly, a "white quarter") ? The importance of acceptance and rights, to me, is not about my "right" to be accepted because I am different, but about my "right" to be accepted in spite of being different - far from the same thing, just as equal to me simply means equal, not equal but different - after all, we are all "different".